Drowning
by amabethchase
Summary: As children, Emma and Killian Jones meet by mistake, but they take an instant liking to each other and grow closer over the years, eventually resulting in each of them vowing to help the other-Killian by helping stop Regina, and Emma by helping stop Peter Pan. (AU in which the curse never happened.)


**Chapter One**

"Emma, where are you going?"

Emma halted at the unexpected sound of her mother's voice. She turned to face her, cursing the fact that she hadn't run faster.

"I'm just going to the stables," Emma said. She hated lying to her mother, or anyone for that matter, but if Snow knew where she was really going she wouldn't let her leave the palace.

Snow raised an eyebrow at her, suspicious. "I thought you already went riding this morning."

"I did," Emma said, trying to keep her voice even. "I . . . I just wanted some extra practice."

Snow smiled. "I understand. Have fun, Em. But be careful, okay?"

Emma breathed a sigh of relief. "I will!" She called as she turned and started running again.

"But be back in an hour for dinner!" Snow shouted.

"I will!" Emma repeated.

It didn't take her much longer to get outside. It was getting cold; it had snowed a few days ago, but Emma didn't care. She was too excited.

She'd been on a walk a few weeks ago, around the palace grounds, when she found the old dock the royal army used to store their ships. It was at the side of the palace, under a huge cliff. The only way to access the dock was an unstable, rickety wooden staircase on the side of the cliff, but it was worth it. Emma had started exploring the few ships abandoned there, and found all kinds of things hidden below deck; last week she'd found a small pouch of pixie dust. She didn't like lying to her parents about where she was going, but she knew they'd think it was too dangerous and never let her leave the palace alone again. Saying they were overprotective was an understatement.

As she ran down the hill that would take her to the dock, she tied her long blond hair back into a ribbon. She shrugged off her coat and left it in the grass; she was cold, but it was bulky and weighed her down.

The stairs were just where she remembered, and she cautiously stepped onto the top step. It creaked under her weight, which wasn't much, and she wondered if her past few trips here had weakened them further.

But she made it to the bottom, and scrambled over the small patch of sand there to get to the dock, which was falling apart. The wood was riddled with holes, and one wrong step could send her plunging into the icy water below. She would be careful, she decided, for once.

She surveyed the row of ships in front of her. There were only six left, and they weren't in the best condition. She decided to explore the one on the far right, the one with the half-fallen flag still hanging on top. She didn't think she'd been to that one yet.

She climbed up the ladder on the side of the ship and up onto the deck, which was strewn with pieces of wood and debris. She headed below deck, though she couldn't see much from the dim light streaming through the window. She did find an old soldier's hat, and battered old journal, but there wasn't anything written in it. Still, she slipped both items into the bag she'd brought with her. She tried not to be too disappointed as she climbed back to the ship's deck. Maybe next time she would bring a lantern so she could see better.

Emma had barely taken two steps on the dock to head back to the palace when she heard a strange cracking sound beneath her. She barely had time to register what was happening before the wood under her feet snapped and fell apart, and she plunged down into the water.

She was paralyzed by the cold; she was completely frozen. Panicked, she couldn't think straight. Emma didn't remember how deep the water was, and she just kept sinking, too numb to even push herself back up to the surface. This was it, she thought briefly. This was how she was going to die, wasn't it?

Suddenly, something started dragging her back up-some_one. _Their hands closed on her arms and yanked her roughly back up onto the dock.

Emma gasped for breath, her teeth chattering crazily together. She felt only minimally less frozen than she had in the water.

"Are you all right?" An unfamiliar boy's voice asked her.

Emma looked up to see a concerned boy about her age, eleven, kneeling in front of her. He was dressed in clothes like the ones the boys in the village wore, and he was soaked from jumping in to save her, but he didn't seem to be shivering as badly as she was. He had piercing blue eyes and a mess of dark hair, and Emma was sure she'd never seen him before.

"I-I'm fine," Emma stammered, barely able to get the words out. "T-th-thanks for s-saving me."

"This dock is dangerous, you know," he said. "It's not safe to walk around here."

"T-then were you?" She asked. "Who are you?"

The boy hesitated, and before he could say anything else, a voice Emma recognized shouted her name. He was panicked.

"Emma!" Her father shouted, from somewhere up on the hill. "Emma, are you down there?"

The boy's eyes widened, and he darted back to the ship in the middle, the smallest but least rundown one. Emma watched, fascinated, as he swung himself up onto the deck and disappeared moments later below it.

Then there were footsteps on the rickety old staircase leading down to the dock, and if Emma wasn't too numb from the cold, she would have noticed her heart pounding; the last thing she wanted was to be caught by her parents. They'd never let her out of their sight again.

"Emma!" Her father's voice was simultaneously relieved and horrified as he ran towards her on the dock, with no regards to the fragility of it. "Em, why would you come down here? You know it isn't safe!"

"I-I-I'm sorry," Emma said, trying to sound normal, but she was too cold. "I-I w-won't do it a-again."

Charming scooped her up into his arms and started carrying her back to the stairs. "I know you won't," he said, a little bemused. "I think you've learned your lesson."

"I-I-I have," Emma stammered. "I-I can't f-feel my face."

Charming smiled. "I can tell-I can barely understand what you're saying."

Emma didn't say anything else as he carried her back to the palace; she could only think of how cold she was, but mostly of that boy on the ship. He'd saved her life. But he clearly hadn't wanted her to know who he was, and especially not anyone else, since he'd bolted at the sound of her father's voice. How had he been there to save her, though? Who was he? And wasn't he feeling just as sick as she was right now?

She would go back to him, she decided. She would find a way to help him.

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Snow asked anxiously. She'd been hovering around Emma's bed for hours.

"I'm fine," Emma insisted. She didn't exactly feel fine; even after several warm baths and lying by the fire in her room for a few hours, she could still feel the icy water closing around her, choking her, and she felt like she had a fever. But that boy on the dock had to be worse off. He didn't have any fire, or warm clothes, or food, if he was still there, did he?

"It is getting late . . ." Snow looked to Charming, who was seated in a chair in the corner, reading an old volume from Emma's bookshelf. "But we can stay if you need. We'd be more than happy to."

"Absolutely," Charming said, glancing up from his book.

Emma smiled. She appreciated her parents' concern, and even their overprotectiveness. She would rather have that than no parents, like some of her friends from the village. And their presence comforted her; she may have let them stay, had she not felt a responsibility to go help that mysterious boy.

"I'm feeling much better," she said, trying her best to be convincing. She managed to sit up a little, hoping that would help. "I'll be fine. You should go to bed."

Snow still looked torn.

"Please, Mama," Emma said. "You should go to sleep."

"All right," Snow finally agreed, and bent down to kiss her forehead. "Just call for us if you need anything, okay? Anything at all?"

"Goodnight, Mama," Emma said.

"We trust you won't leave your room for the rest of the night?" Charming raised an eyebrow.

"I won't even leave my bed," Emma lied.

He smiled, and followed Snow towards the door after dropping a kiss on her forehead, too. "Goodnight, Em."

"Goodnight, Daddy."

Emma waited for several minutes after they'd left to climb out of bed; she felt a little lightheaded, but nothing she couldn't handle. She found an empty bag in her closet and stuffed nearly half a loaf of bread into it-it was all that was leftover from the tray of food the maids had brought her that afternoon. But at least it was something. The boy was probably starving.

Emma knew her parents would probably have all the palace guards on high alert tonight, paranoid she'd try to sneak out again. So traveling through the palace corridors was out. But there was another way.

She had to climb up onto her bedside table to reach a lantern hanging on her wall, but she needed the light. She didn't even think her parents knew about it, but there was a tunnel that could be accessed through her closet that could take a person outside the palace. She hated walking through it, though; it was pitch-black and crawling with spiders and hard to navigate.

She took a deep breath and shoved in the small doorway that led to the tunnel. She was a princess, she reminded herself as she stepped inside. She had to be brave, to set an example for everyone in the kingdom, to be a leader. She was going to have to do things that scared her.

She didn't know how long it took her to finally reach the end of the tunnel and shove open the door to jump onto the grass outside, on the side of the palace, but she was relieved to be out of the dark. The full moon illuminated the night, making the water by the dock sparkle. It almost didn't look as dangerous, Emma mused as she climbed down the stairs-much more carefully this time.

She approached the boat she'd seen the boy retreat to cautiously. She didn't want him to get scared and run again; she just wanted to know who he was and if she could help him.

"Hello?" She called quietly, once she'd gotten on board the ship. There was no answer. "Hello?" She called again, and when he didn't answer, she decided to go below deck.

She gasped.

There were several lanterns lining the walls, lighting up a seemingly wrecked scene; there was a small cot in the corner, where the boy sat up, terrified, and there were old Navy uniforms and hats and sword cases strewn everywhere on the floor. It was hardly a decent place to stay.

"What are you doing here?" The boy demanded, standing up quickly, defensively. "You shouldn't be here."

_Hey, _Emma wanted to say. _This is my palace. I'm allowed to explore where I want to. _But that was hardly something that would convince him to trust her.

"I don't mean to intrude," she said. "But I wanted to make sure you were all right. I brought you some bread."

He frowned. "I don't need anything from you."

"You need to eat."

"Please, go away," the boy pleaded.

Emma hesitated. He really didn't want her there. But something told her that she couldn't just leave him. "I won't go until you tell me who you are, and how you got here," she said. "I am grateful that you saved me. But I would also like answers."

The boy stared at her for a moment, and she saw something flicker in his eyes. A kind of hope, like maybe he could trust her.

"Fine," he said reluctantly, lowering himself back onto the cot. She noticed he was dressed in clothes several sizes too big for him, but she didn't want to question anything, in fear he'd decide against explaining. "My name is Killian. Like i said, I . . . I'm not from here. I was playing with my friends, back home, and one of them told us he'd found a magic bean. One that could transport you places. None of us believed him, and he told me to try it, to prove his point. So I did, and I ended up there, on that hill." He pointed. "I don't know what this place is, or why I came here, and I really don't know how to get back." His eyes were glassy. Emma felt a pang of sympathy for him. "I just want to go home."

"I can help you," Emma said gently. "I could read about magic beans, where to find them. We'll get you back to your home."

The hope in his eyes was back. "I can't ask you to do that."

"It's the least I can do," Emma said. "You _did _save my life."

He cracked a smile. "I figured it was more polite than letting you drown."

"Excellent manners," Emma said.

"So, about the magic beans," he said. "Where are we going to find any information?"

"The library," she said. "But first, we need to find you a better place to stay."


End file.
